Tour of our new home :)

I'm finally getting up some pictures of our new home!! They are not in the most logical order (I still find the process for posting pictures and moving them around incredibly annoying... maybe I'll figure it out someday!) Anyway, here is the big tour of our apartment!

Back patio :)

View of the clubhouse/fitness center (and the pool is to the side)

Hallway outside of the kids' room.

The boys' closet

Another closet view.

Kids room

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom again (we pretty much all share this bathroom since it has the only tub)

Laundry door in second bathroom... and you can see a little part of the shower on the right. We covered the glass door with a window panel and use the shower as a storage closet... we can't use this shower anyway since the kids take baths and it's actually been a nice little extra storage space!

Second bathroom

Master Bedroom

Nathan uses the pack-and-play for some of his naps during the day (if we're playing in the kids room or if Alex is sleeping) It's worked out really well :)

Our room and walk-in closet (I didn't post pics of our closet, but it's a decent size... not as big as our closet at our house though... and we have to fit ALL of our clothes in here since we cannot fit a dresser in our room! That's been a bit tricky - I had to put our winter clothes in bins under the bed and in the back of the closet to have enough hanging room.)

Had to include a picture of our beautiful bed :) This was built by my brother, Ben, with the help of Gary a couple of years ago... it was our wedding present from them!

Hall view... we have 3 closets on the right hand side that we use for storage of games, art stuff, scrapbook stuff, extra food/supplies, etc. The left is the extra bathroom.

Kitchen - I LOVE the kitchen! It has so much storage and the huge island is GREAT!

View of kitchen and entry from the living room.

The apartment complex actually supplies this TV... love having it on the wall though!

Our new table! I love it!!! The fourth chair has Nathan's high chair seat on it... we keep it in the corner and pull it over at meal time :) It's a high-top table, so hopefully we can use the chairs at a counter in the future, or use this table in an eat-in area or basement or something (since it probably won't be a permanent solution for an actual dining table - we hope to have more children and enjoy having family and friends over to eat!!) But, as you can see, we don't have much space for anything bigger! haha.

Living room view

So, it's definitely a bit cozy (1,000 square feet for 4 people), but we've found that it is really the perfect amount of space for us for right now! Our house was much bigger, but was also something that we planned on growing into. This is just a home for now, so we don't really need any more space than this :) We've made it a home and we love it!! I really like having access to a fitness center and pool too. We do miss having a yard to play in, but we play outside at the apartment a couple of times a week and make it to the park at least once a week. Alex also likes playing out on the patio.

We continue to like the location as well - it is located just a few minutes from shopping and the mall and there are two grocery stores less than a couple of miles away. Gary's taking the bus to work now... the commuter lot is about a 5 mile drive and he's on the bus 30 mintues... so the commute hasn't been bad at all!

5 Months and "potty training" (or not so much...)

My baby is 5 months old today! Here's a quick update on a couple of new things he's doing:

~He can sit up really well with just a tiny bit of support... he can sit up on his own holding onto something (toy basket, etc.), but of course you have to watch to make sure he doesn't topple over... and he can sit up without anyone helping him for a few seconds, then he falls over :) won't be long now before he's sitting unassisted!

~He's reaching for things like crazy! He already wants everything Alex has - can't imagine what that's going to be like in a couple of months!!

~He always rolls right over when placed on his tummy... but still doesn't roll back to front. He is SO CLOSE. When he really wants a toy that's just out of reach, he will ALMOST do it, then give up! He could totally do it if he actually wanted to, I think.

~He is still being a stinker when it comes to sleeping at night... he's waking up a few times some nights, and other nights he does great. I'm sticking to feeding him once through the night... he's sleeping 7:30-6:30 with a feeding at some point (usually 1-2ish). When he wakes up other times I've been letting him cry a few minutes and sometimes he goes back to sleep. If not, I go in every few minutes and try to settle him with his passy. That usually puts him right to sleep if he doesn't fall back to sleep on his own.

~Naps are ok... he started sleeping with a stuffed animal or his taggies blanket this month and likes that a lot! He snuggles with them and will suck on them some when not using his passy to fall asleep. His best naps are his first nap of the day and his afternoon nap (which I often snuggle with him for - love this time of day!) His other 2-3 naps are just catnaps that last around 25-45 minutes.


And on to my BIG challenge these past few days: POTTY TRAINING! It hasn't been a huge disaster, but hasn't gone well at all either...

~After a bit of research, we decided to dive right in and try and do a "straight to underwear" approach where we could hopefully potty train him fairly quickly. It did not go as planned :)
~We talked about his "special potty day" for a couple of days and he was SO excited!
~He woke up from his nap on Monday, ready for his special day! We gave him a brand new potty and decorated it together with Thomas stickers (we'd been reading a book, "The Potty Train", and he wanted his own train potty!)
~We put him in his new underwear and he was super excited to sit on his potty. He stayed there a looong time reading books (he especially loves his Elmo potty book that I found several months ago at a garage sale, it's one of those music books!)
~He wants to be BIG and use the potty like Elmo, mommy, daddy, and some of his friends. He loves his underwear.
~We've been giving him a couple of M&Ms whenever he sits on the potty if his underwear are dry before he tries. I take him to the potty frequently and have been trying to predict his accidents.
~He has no clue... he peeks in the potty to see if he made anything... and never does...
~We've got him in training underwear, so the accidents haven't been real messy, but it's A LOT of laundry since I'm too cheap to buy lots of the training underwear! haha. I bought some regular ones too, but he's not ready for those yet, they'd be super messy I think.
~He tells me right when he has an accident and walks with his legs widespread to the bathroom... not upset, but wanting to be changed right away... he looks ridiculously silly walking like that :)
~It's been 2.5 days and we've yet to have a single success in the potty... so I think we're going to put diapers back on and do a more gradual approach (still try to use the potty a couple of times a day and hope for a success soon.)
~We did have somewhat of a breakthrough last night... I put him back in a diaper and told him he could still use the potty when he needed to, but we were going to wear the diaper the rest of the night (I told him it was almost bedtime, because he wanted to wear his underwear! but our convo went like this, "Are you going to try and peepee in the potty if we put the underwear on? or are you just going to go in your underwear?" "I'm just going to go in my underwear." So... I told him it was almost bedtime anyway and he was ok with putting the diaper on haha.) As soon as he peed in his diaper though, he gave me a look and TOLD me he did it! (he's never done this in a diaper before!!) I think he has at least learned the feeling from this experience :)
~Unless he expresses lots of interest or makes some big breakthroughs over the next month, I think we'll wait until after all the holidays and traveling to hit this hard again.

Just for Fun: 10 Things About Alex

1. I say at least a couple of times a day that I just can't believe how big he is getting! He is SUCH a little boy now! He's getting taller and has a much more mature look... I check out pictures from even just a few months ago and can't believe the difference!

2. He continues to be so affectionate and sweet. He comes up to me many times a day just to give me kisses or hugs. He will take his hands and put them sweetly on my cheeks and give me a kiss! He also loves to snuggle and be held. He'll sit in my lap for stories and snuggle with me during our morning and after nap shows. I think he'll make some lucky girl very happy someday with his love for snuggling and sweet affection!

3. He LOVES his daddy and wants to be just like him! He says "I want to be big and strong like my daddy!" "I drink my milk to be like daddy!" He also tells me frequently that he'll ask his daddy to fix his toys or ask him to do things that mommy doesn't know how to do/fix. He tells me he wants his daddy and asks when daddy will be home.

4. He can be shy. He reminds me of Gary and myself... he is on the quieter/more timid side but also can be very confident when it comes to things that he decides HE wants to do or likes. He likes to go out and do things and gets excited about playing with other kids and making "new friends"... but when not comfortable, he can be quiet and timid. However, once he gets comfortable somewhere and opens up, he is quick to make new friends! He's sensitive when other kids become bullies, but doesn't just let them take his toys away either.

5. He amazes me with his memory and vocabulary. He talks in sentences and carries conversations. (The other night at dinner Gary and I were talking a while and Alex kept trying to get our attention, then he said in frustration, "I want to talk to.") He knows SO MANY words... and I don't know where he learns some of them or comes up with things! And I feel like I can tell him something once and then he'll repeat it back to me a couple of days later when something similar happens.

6. He is a great big brother! He continues to love Nathan so much... he will pat him and say so sweetly "baby brother" or "Nay Nay" or "baby boy". He gets this real high pitched voice when he talks to him and Nathan will give him the biggest smiles and giggles! He brings him toys, tickles him, plays with him in the play gym, and has on occasion even tattled on him! HAHA he'll be in for it when Nathan can move around... he's told on him for "pushing him" and for taking his toys already! When he notices Nathan isn't in the room, he'll ask where he is. He'll also "check on him" for me frequently. I'm feeling much more comfortable with leaving the two of them alone while I leave the room for a minute. He also likes sharing his room with Nathan... before they were together in a room, he'd often talk to himself and play in his bed (fairly noisily) for a while if he wasn't quite ready to sleep yet. Now, he may stay awake a while on some nights, but is SO QUIET (which still amazes me). He doesn't talk or cry or anything. He'll tell me that he needs to be quiet so he doesn't wake up NayNay.

7. He's not an eater. He often just eats a few bites, but sometimes will surprise us and eat a ton. He loves honeycomb cereal for breakfast (often his best meal of the day - he can eat a couple of bowls on some days!), mostly eats PB&J for lunch, enjoys grapes, peas, cooked carrots, cheese, chips (a little too much), pasta, milk and orange juice, cookies, and his all-time favorite thing to eat currently - fruit snacks. He's not big on meat AT ALL. Usually we have to make him eat a couple of bites of his meat. We've kind of given up trying to get him to eat lots at every meal... I guess it gets to the point that you just figure they won't go hungry!

8. I think he obeys better than most kids his age. He will sit in time-out as long as you leave him there (hasn't gotten up without permission in AGES... and even then, maybe three or four times ever), will go to his room or to time-out when I tell him to now (I don't have to "put him" in time-out anymore). He also does "room time" now (modified from "blanket time" that we used to do). He does this about 45 minutes a day... he's told to play in his room while mommy showers or cleans up or whatever. He's to play by himself and stay in his room, and he does! If he doesn't listen or do what he's told, after a short time-out he almost always fixes his behavior. He also does not get out of his bed without permission at bedtime or naptime (so thankful for this not being an issue!) He's fairly easy to take most places... I don't have any issues taking him to the grocery store or doctor or to run errands or go out to eat. He will get antsy after a while, but does not typically act up :)

9. His favorite things: trains, playing outside, hotwheels, tools, trucks, tractors, airplanes, space and rockets (he's still talking about how he's going to be an astronaut!), movies, little people, superheros, his bike, play-doh, letters, swimming, sand, bathtime (he'll take more than one a day if we let him!), reading books, the park, church, "new friends", and the library. There isn't one particular thing that I'd say he's "hooked on"... he continues to have many interests.

10. He is not a huge risk taker. He's just recently started experimenting more at playgrounds (he's still not usually big on slides, but will do them) and has done a couple of ladders. He is timid when it comes to trying new things (he doesn't just jump right in!) Example: swimming... he was fine with playing in the very shallow part, but it took some time and gentle coaxing to get him to go out in the deep end with help. He does things in his own time, not when you try to convince him or force him to do new things. Usually if we make a big deal and try to make him do something, he just gets stubborn! We've found that it's best to let it go and try again later :)

We love our little boy so so much!

A fun visit with family :)

My parents came for a visit this past weekend! It was the first chance we've had to show off our new area and apartment to anyone... it was so fun to spend time with them, show them DC, and take a 2 day trip to the beach!! Here are some pictures and favorite memories from our time together:

This was Nathan's first ocean experience! He was pretty much indifferent. I remember Alex's first trip to the beach (he would have been about the same age as Nathan, maybe a month older at most) - he didn't like the water much and would often cry when we'd dip his feet in!

Alex at dinner... he was such a ham when we went out for seafood!!! He was acting so silly, we were beginning to wonder what was in his cup ;)

Alex, of course, LOVING the sand!!

Some favorite memories:

Showing our new apartment to my parents, Alex showing off his "new room", Alex's excitement when he found out we were going to the beach, Alex asking over and over again when we were going to the beach, a nice picnic downtown, going to the Natural History Museum, Alex saying when we got downtown "I want to go to a museum", Alex not wanting to miss anything at the museum! (not quite as exciting as the air and space museum, but he still had a great time), Alex dragging Grandma all over, walking to the monuments, Alex thinking the Washington Monument was a rocket!, ice cream, after walking around a while Alex asking if we could go to another museum pleeeaaaase, the squirrels stealing Alex's sandwich out of the trash, Alex enjoying the WWII monument with Grandpa - loving the fountains and holding Grandpa's hand

Then we got to travel to the beach on Sunday morning! It's only 3 hrs away, so we left early Sunday and spent the day there, then traveled back Monday afternoon (we are loving Gary's frequent 3 day weekends!!). Beach memories: Alex's excitement when told it was time to go the beach, arriving at the rest stop and Alex asking where the beach was, Alex's awe at his first peak at the beach, having a hard time waiting while we put sunscreen on, Alex running all around and "chasing the waves" (until he fell in the water, then he was a bit more timid), Alex building a campfire in the sand and playing pretend with hot dogs and marshmellows, cooking us "sand soup", making a road in the sand, digging big holes, sand everywhere, Nathan loving the outdoors and being mostly content, Gary dipping Nathan's toes in the water, Nathan being pretty much indifferent to the new experience, watching the Blue Angels in the sky (there was a big air show going on), Alex LOVING the planes and Nathan getting scared by the loud noises they made, going out for great seafood (twice!), Alex LOVING going out to eat (and asking the next day if we could go out to eat again), Alex enjoying his orange juice (that he ordered himself) and loving the little umbrellas we gave him off of our margaritas, Alex acting so silly that we were wondering what was actually in his cup ;), Alex calling it the "BIG beach", yummy margaritas, walking around after dinner, putting Alex to bed (after his second day in a row with no nap) - Gary read him books like usual and then told him to close his eyes and go to sleep - he said "ok daddy", rolled on his side, closed his eyes, and didn't move till morning! TOO CUTE, getting to go out for a while with Gary (while Gma and Gpa kept an eye on the kids for us!), getting ice cream and watching the waves, morning coffee while watching the waves break from the balcony, Alex loving "cake for breakfast" (grandma's famous coffee cake!), playing on the playground at the beach, Alex running like crazy in the sand, Alex's excitement to go back to the beach on Monday, trying to set up the shade tent in the WIND, it getting windier and windier while grandpa was off jogging, trying to make sure the tent didn't blow away, the kids starting to lose it because the wind was getting SO STRONG!!, packing up our stuff and heading out a little early becuase strong wind on the beach with a 4 month old and 2 year old is not a good combo!

We had such a fun time this weekend and made so many wonderful memories!

Thankful

A few things that I am thankful for over the past couple of weeks...

~A healthy baby boy: We went to two appointments last week for Nathan's head. The neurologist was very happy with how strong Nathan is, his attentiveness, his ability to control his hands/movements, the way he reaches with such purpose for toys, and his all around cognitive abilities and growth! She was confident that he does not have any major issues with his head growth (and brain development) and thinks that continued positioning will help with the flattness. She does want us to get an x-ray just to completely rule out craniosynistosis (sp?), but said IF there were any problems with this, they are definitely not affecting him yet and will not be a serious issue. She said that all of these appointments though are just us all being overcautious. This eased my worries and really just makes me feel so thankful for Nathan's health.

~A husband who eases my worry... when I start to freak out (and my mind gets going and makes up stories and "what ifs"), Gary is always there to remind me that God is sovereign. I spent several days really worrying about Nathan and over-researching things online... Gary reassured me over and over again, reminding me it is what it is, we are not in control, there is nothing that we can do other than deal with it if something is wrong. I am so thankful for him and his positivity... he keeps me grounded and level-headed. When I tell him what I've been thinking/worrying about all day, he's there to make me realize how ridiculous I'm acting and I often end up laughing at how I've been fretting when he's right: I AM NOT IN CONTROL! It is so hard to remember this sometimes! I am so thankful for such a loving, Christian husband!

~SLEEP!!!! So my last post was "frustrated"... we ended up deciding that we needed to move Nathan into the laundry/second bathroom again so that I wouldn't be jumping out of bed to get him the second he cried due to my fear of waking Alex up! He's been in there since Friday and is doing so much better! We let him cry a couple of times and it has really helped get him back to one feeding in the middle of the night! YAY! The last couple of nights he's gone down at 7:30 and has gotten up to eat around 11 and then sleeps till morning - 6:00ish. I have felt so much more rested! I think we're going to move him back in with Alex tonight and see how it goes :)

~Gary and I still stop at least a couple of times a week and just look at each other saying, "can you believe we're here right now?" Saturday as we were out running errands and enjoying the day we were reminiscing about the past year. It has been almost a year since Gary lost his job at 5/3. Who would have ever imagined all that would happen this past year! God is so good. I love being able to look back and see how God worked through every situation and answered every prayer.

Frustrated...

So I'm getting a little frustrated with Nathan's new sleeping pattern... for the past couple of weeks he's been very inconsistent! He was waking up once a night or every now and then sleeping through the night until a couple of weeks ago... then he was getting up twice a night... then the last two nights it's been THREE times! So the question is, what's the cause of this?!? Here are the possibilities that I've come up with...

~We phased him out of the swaddle over the past 3 weeks or so... starting with just one arm out, then both, and now we have him in a sleep sack. I think I may try swaddling him again tonight and see if he sleeps better because that would answer the question fairly easily.
~Is he getting a tooth? I think he may be getting a top tooth... he's been very drooly and has been sucking his fingers A LOT. I also thought I felt one possibly, but you can't really see it yet. Also, he bit me a few times yesterday... ouch! Alex didn't start that till much later... but at least it's not a full out tooth yet, so hopefully I can stop that quickly!
~Growth spurt?
~Ready for solids? The doctor gave us the go-ahead to start them if we want, but we waited till 6 months with Alex and I don't really see any NEED to start yet... unless it'd help him sleep better??
~Or... is it just becoming habit? This happened eventually with Alex and we had to let him cry it out, but he was quite a bit older, I'm thinking 6 or 7 months??? But I really can't remember. He does take a passy to sleep pretty often, so maybe we need to work on sleeping without it? Although we've mostly used it for naps, he doesn't usually need it to go to sleep at night and he has no problem GETTING to sleep or going back to sleep after being fed at night. (both of which were harder with Alex)

Then the next issue...
I haven't been letting him fuss at night for more than a few minutes... if he starts crying I have been pretty much going right in to get him (as soon as I can get myself out of bed that is ;) ). My main reason for this is that he shares a room with Alex and I don't want Alex to not be able to sleep. However, I think they've gotten used to each other at this point because Alex doesn't wake up through the night or in the morning when Nathan does any more, and Nathan doesn't wake up when we put Alex to bed either at this point. I'm thinking if we do let him cry for a while though, Alex would probably wake up. AND we're in an apartment, which is a whole new feeling too... I don't want to bother other people. Their room doesn't have any walls that connect with anyone else though (which is great), so it would just be if the people upstairs could hear him. My thinking is that maybe when we do decide to let him cry it out I'll put him in the laundry/bathroom again for a week or so to minimize bothering Alex.

Well... if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it!

On another note... a couple of cute Alex moments:
~We went to an apartment chips/margarita social the other night and told Alex we were going to the "clubhouse" for a party... his eyes got SO big and he was like "THE CLUBHOUSE??!!" then we realized he thought we meant Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse LOL... it's been his favorite show lately and Gary asked him the other day if he'd want to go there someday (referring to Disneyworld - we MIGHT be going later this year since Gary may be traveling to Orlando for work). Ever since, Alex has been asking to go there. Too funny.
~Looking at a picture of Nathan, "awww.... Nay Nay! He's so cute mommy!"
~Out of NOWHERE while we're running errands Alex says, "I wanna go to one more place" "You do? Where do you want to go?" "BEST BUY!" hmmm... wonder who taught him that? ;)
~"Guess what! It's the weekend!" "IT IS??? pamaw and pampaws house???" - (grandma and grandpa's) guess he thinks that's what weekends are for now haha.

4 Months!

My little man is already 4 months old, can't believe it!!! Here's a little update on Nathan:
~14.6lbs (50th percentile)
~24 inches (although, I'm not convinced this is totally accurate, he was being awfully wiggly!)
~Still eating about every 3 hrs during the day, his rough schedule is: 6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 7:45 (then bed at 8:00)
~Still napping between each feeding for between 30 min and an hr and a half (his best nap is usually between 12:30 and 3:30).. no nap before his bedtime feeding though!
~He usually wakes up once during the night... sometime between 12:30 and 3:30, but sleeps through sometimes
~He prefers being swaddled at night, but we're phasing this out... I'm leaving his arms out now.
~He's so smiley and happy most of the time!
~Nathan LOVES his big brother... watches him, "talks" to him, tries to get his attention
~Holds and shakes a rattle
~Picks up toys off his tray
~Rolls onto side from back, but not quite all the way to his tummy (still rolling tummy to back though)

I also mentioned his head flattness last month... after a week of thinking about it after our last appointment, I ended up making appointments with two specialists to get it checked, those appointments are next week. I'm still worrying about this, but it does seem to look a little better. I'm thinking he may need a molding device, but we'll see! The doctor we saw yesterday wasn't super concerned, but thought it was a good idea to see the specialist.

Alex also had a physical yesterday since we're seeing new doctors, he did GREAT!! I was impressed with how well he took the finger stick (no tears!) and let the doctor check him and everything :) Here are his stats:
~35 inches tall
~27 lbs
~25th percentile for height and weight